


Things Get Done When Clarke's In Charge

by DianaandAlicia



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: All the other delinquents are in this too, Gen, Season 1 fix-it, canon divergence from 1x04 on, drop ship mom clarke is the best clarke lets be real, set at the dropship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 04:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26346835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaandAlicia/pseuds/DianaandAlicia
Summary: How 1x04 should have went.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Things Get Done When Clarke's In Charge

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This was something I first wrote for Tumblr, when @Johnmurphyisbisexual talked about a fix it for 1x04. I wrote it on my blog first, and now I am going to transfer it here. I hope you all like it!

“How do you want to do this?” Finn asked, looking at Clarke eye the knife that was used to kill her best friend.

“First, let’s go find Murphy and talk with him in the drop ship. If he did it, then we move on from there. If he didn’t, then we’ll figure something out.”

“But you just said that this is his knife Clarke. He had to have done it.” 

“Not necessarily. We are living in a camp of juvenile criminals. Many of them busted for stealing. Wells was the chancellor’s son. Besides me, he was probably the most hated person in the camp.”

“Shut up Clarke. Everyone loves you. Even if it’s been only a few days, it’s easy to see that everyone trusts you and the fact that you give a damn about all of them shows that. Yeah, you might be strict at times, and a stickler for following the routine, but we all need structure so it’s not like you’re being controlling.”

Clarke nodded and smiled, happy that at least Finn thought that.

“So, what if Murphy lies? What do we do then? How would we even figure that out?”

“He has a tell. When Murphy lies, he rubs his left thumb knuckle with his right thumb. He also can’t look people in the eye when he’s lying to them.”

“We’ve been on the ground for like four days and you already know that Murphy has a tell?”

“Yeah. I asked him if he gathered wood for one of our fires yesterday and he said yes, when in reality I saw Stella doing the job ten minutes earlier. He had his tell then. He also did it when he pissed on that one kid, I saw him do that, and he lied right to my face that he didn’t. He couldn’t look me in the eyes and he was rubbing his knuckle like crazy. When I informed him that I saw him do it and knew he was lying, he acted like he didn’t care, but after I punished him with berry duty, he came up to me later and apologized for lying.”

“Do you know when every kid in the camp is lying?”

“No, not yet. But it’s only been less than a week. I’ll figure it out with time.”

“Ok, so what if Murphy didn’t do it, how’d we start an investigation without the camp knowing? If it got out that we were looking for Wells’ killer, the real killer might hurt someone else.”

“We’ll figure it out Finn. It’ll be fine.”

“Maybe we should just forget about it and keep the narrative that a grounder killed him.”

“We can’t. Jasper found the knife so a few people know. We haven’t had a grounder break into the camp so it has to be one of us. And besides, these children are our responsibility. Not only are we supposed to keep them safe, but we’re also supposed to discipline them when they need it.”

“Let’s go find Murphy.” Finn said, before adding, “Clarke? I know you and I are leading, but remember, we’re just kids too.  So, don’t put  too much pressure on yourself.”

The two exited the tent and went off to find Murphy, and after about five minutes of searching, they found him and brought him to the drop ship, taking him to the upper most level to talk in private.

“What’s up?” He asked, before seeing Clarke pull out the knife.

“This was found outside the camp near the area where we recovered Wells’ body.” Clarke started, and she could see Murphy tense up.

“John, I am only going to ask you once and I expect you to answer truthfully. Did you kill Wells?”

“No! Clarke, I didn’t do it. I might not have liked him but I didn’t kill him.”

Clarke smiled and nodded. She and Finn noticed that Murphy looked Clarke straight in the eyes when he said it and his hands stayed at his sides. He was telling the truth.

“Ok. I need you to think, John. Do you remember loaning this out to someone, or do you remember anyone wanting to take it?”

“No, you had me picking those berries and cleaning them yesterday. I left my knife in my tent because I didn’t need it.”

Clarke nodded, getting all the information she needed out of him.

“I am going to keep this for the time being. You’ll get it back once Finn and I figure out who did this. You can go back to whatever you were doing, but please don’t tell anyone that were doing this.”

Murphy nodded in understanding, looking at Clarke gratefully. He had lied to her twice before already and she had every reason to suspect him. He was just relieved that she believed him and didn’t push the issue further.

Once Murphy left, Finn turned to Clarke. “So, what are we going to do now?”

“We’ll interrogate everyone in the camp I guess.”

“But that’s like 94 people Clarke, that’ll take forever.”

“Then we’ll do it all night if we have to!”

“Lights out is at 10:00.”

“Then we’ll do it until 10:00!” Clarke argued, and Finn eventually nodded in agreement.

“Let’s get started. I’ll go get the checklist so we can keep track of who we talked to.” She said, going to get the list of names she took down when the drop ship landed. She was sad that six names of the original 100 were crossed off, due to death, but shook it off and put a little star next to Murphy’s name.

After four days of interrogation, Finn and Clarke came up with nothing. Since Clarke didn’t know all the kids that well, some could have been lying for all she knew and there was no way for her to find out yet. She didn’t want to start accusing anyone of lying when they could be telling the truth either so she had no idea what to do.

“Finn, how are we going to figure this out? I mean everyone has been interrogated and we have no idea.”

“I think we should implement a camp wide consequence. Punish everyone until the guilty one comes forward and confesses.” Finn suggested, knowing that while a collective punishment was unfair for those who weren’t involved, it’d probably help weed out the offender.

“I have the perfect punishment.” Clarke said after a moment of thinking, before getting up and leaving the drop ship.

“Alright, everyone I have an announcement!” She called, standing on the ramp of the drop ship. The majority of the kids gathered around, and the ones on watch or doing something farther away stopped and watched Clarke from where they were.

“Finn and I weren’t able to determine who killed Wells by the interrogations, so the true offender has one hour starting now, to come to us and turn themselves in. If it isn’t done in an hour, lights out and bedtime will be moved from 10:00 to 6:30, after dinner, and it will be the new time until the offender confesses.”

“You can’t do that! That’s not fair!” A voice said from the left, and Clarke turned in the direction she heard it, spotting the owner of the voice right away.

“Did I  fucking stutter, Olivia?” She asked, narrowing her eyes. 

Olivia looked down and shook her head. It was common knowledge that what Clarke says in the camp, goes, with Finn backing her up 99% of the time.

“It was probably Murphy! It was his knife!” A girl yelled, and Clarke saw Murphy freeze up for a moment.

“It wasn’t Murphy, I know this for sure.”

“Oh, how do you know?”

“He was in the camp the day of the incident helping out with berries. It wasn’t him.”

“If Clarke says he didn’t do it, then he didn’t do it.” Octavia said, going up to the girl that said it in the first place.

“He could have been lying.” she retorted, and Clarke went over to her.

“Why are you so set on blaming Murphy, Anna? Is it because you want the attention off of you? Are you hiding something?”

“No, of course not!”

“Then maybe mind your own business.” Clarke finished, before turning away and going back to the ramp. “One hour. Whoever did  it better fess up or you will all be going to bed after dinner tonight.” She said, before walking up the ramp and back into the drop ship.

Unfortunately, nobody came forward within the hour so after supper that night, Clarke had everyone line up to get their hug before bed. It was a ritual that she started when they landed. Many of the delinquents were abused as children or were incredibly touch starved, like Murphy and Octavia, so every night before bed, they all lined up and Clarke gave each kid one by one a hug and told them that she was glad they were there, before sending them off to bed. It might seem silly, but it was something positive she could do for all the kids in the camp each day. While some of the children did it and barely reacted, other kids, like Murphy, would hold on a little longer, or squeeze a little tighter. Murphy even whispered a sincere thank you when Clarke hugged him. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for not hurting me. Thank you for caring.

Clarke never told anyone, but those hugs helped her too. After nine months in solitary confinement, holding or having contact with all the kids really cemented the idea that they were all in it together, and they had each other’s backs. She wanted them to know that even if they sometimes didn’t get along or argued, she still cared about every one of them.

The only ones that didn’t have to follow lights out were the few people on watch, but they slept and got their hugs in the morning. To not screw up sleep schedules too much, Clarke let the ones that were going to take over at 10:00 stay up, and the ones still on watch would go to sleep when their shift was over, but other than that, everyone was in their tents or the drop ship for the night.

Charlotte, the youngest in the camp, was the last in line to get a hug, and before Clarke could lean in, she stopped her.

“Clarke, Finn, can I talk to you? In private?” She asked, and the two older teens shared a look, knowing what this meant.

“Sure. Let’s go over here.” Clarke said, leading Charlotte to one of the fires, sitting down next to her on a log.

“I killed Wells.” The little girl said, looking up to see both Clarke and Finn’s disappointed faces.

“Why?”

“He reminded me of his dad.” Was all Charlotte said, and Clarke nodded in  understanding. She and Charlotte had a talk about Jaha floating her parents a few days ago.

“Well, we don’t kill people, especially not ones in our camp.” Clarke said quietly.

Charlotte nodded, and Clarke could tell that she felt guilty.

“You’ll have to be punished Charlotte.” Finn said, and Clarke noticed that the younger girl flinched.

“What are you going to do to me? Are you going to hurt me?”

“No, of course not.” Clarke said quickly. “You’ll be grounded in this camp for six months. You will not be allowed to leave unless there’s an emergency like a sudden evacuation or something, and you will report to either me or Finn every morning. We will give you a small list of tasks we want you to work on throughout the day, to help the camp. You also will not be allowed to handle any weapons in this camp until you’re sixteen, unless Finn or I give you specific permission. Do you understand Charlotte?”

“Yes. Clarke, I’m really sorry.”

“I know you are.  But we’re going to work to make things better. Go to bed now, we’ll talk more in the morning.” Clarke said, giving Charlotte a hug. 

Once the little girl went to bed, Clarke and Finn tidied up around camp and finished some odd jobs until they went to bed, joining the rest of the camp for an early sleep. The two leaders had their own tents, but they were big enough for two to three other people to join them if they needed to, which is what happened in Clarke’s tent that night.

Much later, after the original bedtime, Clarke, who was still awake, heard the zipper to her tent come undone. A shadowy figure crawled  in and shut the door behind them. She had her flashlight on by the time they turned around, to see who it is. Clarke never minded if someone wanted her during the night, but she’d still like to know who it was.

“Hey Murphy. Couldn’t sleep?”

The younger boy shook his head and Clarke smiled. Even if Murphy liked to pretend that he was edgy and tough during the day, he was a cuddler at night. Clarke remembered the first night on the ground, when she was giving out the good night hugs. All the kids were scared that first night, since they were all used to sleeping on the Ark. The machine hum was practically instinctual by now, so the noises of wind, rain, the occasional tree cracking or bird chirping was foreign to them. They barely slept that first night, because all 98 of them were so scared, and the only thing that kept the tears at bay were Clarke’s hugs and her and Finn reassuring everyone that it’s ok to be scared of things they weren’t used to yet. 

She remembered how after getting a good portion of the kids to relax, she had seen Murphy hunched in a corner of the ship, flinching at the sounds the wind made against the drop ship. Clarke came over and hugged him, not loosening her grip when he flinched at first. When she had said, “It’s ok John. I got you.” He snuggled against her and didn’t let go for the rest of the night.

Clarke knew he needed it so she didn’t let go of him until it was time to get up for breakfast. She remembered hearing her mom talk about a woman with the last name of Murphy, constantly needing to be taken to medical for alcohol poisoning, and how her boy had no one taking care of him. It didn’t click until she was a teen a few months before she was thrown into lock up that John Murphy was that little boy.

“Come here.” Clarke said, moving over a bit and allowing Murphy to crawl closer, before draping the blanket over the both of them.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” She asked, confused. Murphy had already thanked her profusely during their hug earlier, and after she sent him to bed, she hadn’t had any contact with him until now.

“For believing in me. How’d you know I  didn't do it anyways?”

“You tried to fight Wells a few days before he died and you lost. You’re a scrawny runt Murphy. You wouldn’t have won a few days later if you had tried it again.” She said, telling the truth but also omitting the part about knowing when he lied. Clarke had to keep that to herself for the sake of future discipline.

“I’m not a scrawny runt.”

“Sure, you are. But you’re my scrawny runt.” Clarke said lovingly, running her fingers through his hair.

“Can I stay with you tonight?”

“ Of course you can. My tent is always open to you John.” She whispered, pulling Murphy closer and kissing his forehead.

“Did you find out who did it yet?”

“Actually, yes we did. And it’s been dealt with accordingly. Tomorrow bedtime will be back to 10:00.”

“Who was it?”

“John, I don’t think that’s any of your business. It was dealt with and I know it won’t happen again.”

Murphy nodded and cuddled in close.

“Alright Cuddle Bug, I think it’s time to get some sleep, yeah?” She asked, knowing that everyone in the camp was drained. Ever since the investigation was launched, everyone was more on edge because of it. Now though, Clarke could finally sleep peacefully, with one of her Sweeties spending the night with her.

When Murphy hummed in agreement, Clarke kissed him on the nose and pulled the covers tighter, before falling asleep with Murphy in her arms.

The next morning however, when Clarke woke up, she wasn’t surprised to see Harper and Monty curled up in a shared blanket, on the other half of the tent, with Jasper wrapped up in his own sleeping bag, right by the door.

She smiled to herself before gently shaking Murphy, and waking up the other three guests.

“Alright my Lovelies, it’s time to start a beautiful, brand new day....”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
